The soaring prevalence of obesity and diabetes is associated with an increase in comorbidities, including elevated risk for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). CVDs continue to be among the leading causes of death and disability in the United States. While increased nutritional intake from an energy-dense diet is known to disrupt metabolic homeostasis and contributes to the disease risk, circadian rhythm disruption is emerging as a new risk factor for CVD. Circadian rhythms coordinate cardiovascular health via temporal control of organismal metabolism and physiology. Thus, interventions that improve circadian rhythms are prospective entry points to mitigate cardiometabolic disease risk. Although light is a strong modulator of the neural circadian clock, time of food intake is emerging as a dominant agent that affects circadian clocks in metabolic organs. We discovered that imposing a time-restricted feeding (TRF) regimen in which all caloric intakes occur consistently within ≤ 12 h every day exerts many cardiometabolic benefits. TRF prevents excessive body weight gain, improves sleep, and attenuates age- and diet-induced deterioration in cardiac performance. Using an integrative approach that combines Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly) genetics with transcriptome analyses it was found that the beneficial effects of TRF are mediated by circadian clock, ATP-dependent TCP/TRiC/CCT chaperonin and mitochondrial electron transport chain components. Parallel studies in rodents have shown TRF reduces metabolic disease risks by maintaining metabolic homeostasis. As modern humans continue to live under extended periods of wakefulness and ingestion events, daily eating pattern offers a new potential target for lifestyle intervention to reduce CVD risk.
